Crytek

Crytek, the studio behind games like the Crysis series, Ryse: Son of Rome, and the upcoming FPS title Homefront: The Revolution, is apparently in financial trouble. A report by GameStar, a German magazine, suggests that other companies have sent offers to some of Crytek's most talented employees while the people at Crytek report that paychecks and bonuses have come unfulfilled.

Eurogamer has provided a translation of GameStar's report that you can read below.

The vultures are circling already,' so says a leading employee of one of the large publishers. Companies like this have already started making offers to the most talented people at Crytek, to hire them away. Such a brain drain can become dangerous for any studio, even a financially stable one.

A takeover of Crytek would be interesting for a company, that could use the development-experience of the Crytek and doesn't want to build up such experience itself. That is why the Belarus F2P-giant Wargaming is rumoured to be a potential buyer.

When you are reading this, there is hope that Crytek has managed to avoid disaster. A new source of money, said Avni Yerli [one of the managing directors], is in sight. When we called him in early June, the contract had not yet been signed, but will be in a short while. 'Not all is good. Our transition to become a F2P-studio had been painful. But all that is now behind us.

Eurogamer also reports that before E3 took place two weeks ago, they were contacted by a source from Crytek Sofia saying that salaries have not been paid for the past two months. Additionally, people at Crytek UK have said that they haven't been paid on time with many of them "disgruntled" as management refuses to explain the issues.

Kotaku has also received similar emails.

I am an employee in the Frankfurt studio.

None of us have been paid last month's salary. It is normally paid before the end of the month.
It is 11 days late and none of us have been given an explanation by management.
All we have to go on are rumors.
This is not the only sign of troubles at Crytek.

One person told Kotaku about missing bonuses at Crytek UK as well, also confirming that salaries have not been paid since April.

"My reason for reaching out is mainly because there are a lot of people in my situation and it isn't right for a company to not pay staff on time," a Crytek UK employee said. "People should know that there are a bunch of employees who deserve a better company. These things should not be kept in the dark."

So far, Crytek has denied GameStar's report but numerous requests to PR by Kotaku have gone unanswered.

Regardless of what some media are reporting, mostly based on a recent article published by GameStar, the information in those reports and in the GameStar article itself are rumors which Crytek deny. We continue to focus on the development and publishing of our upcoming titles Homefront: The Revolution, Hunt: Horrors of the Gilded Age, Arena of Fate, and Warface, as well as providing ongoing support for our CryEngine and its licensees. We have received a lot of positive feedback during and after E3 from both gaming press and gamers, and would like to thank our loyal employees, fans and business partners for their continuous support.

Update: A new report from Kotaku reveals that the studio cancelled multiple titles including an original game that was in pre-production work early this year. They also halted work on Ryse 2 with Microsoft due to a "conflict over who would own rights to the franchise," according to sources speaking to Kotaku. Microsoft's statement on the matter said that they have "nothing to announce about the future of the franchise at this time."

It appears that there was no clear direction for the studio as they shifted from AAA games like Crysis to free-to-play territory with Warface, a game that "bombed everywhere but Russia" according to three employees.

"Instead of focusing on the core strengths of the company, which would be the [Crytek] engine and innovative PC titles, we simply jumped at every next big thing in the industry," a Crytek employee said. "Except that each time we did, it was a little too late and we were running after our competitors. There's no sense of identity at this point and I think that frustrates both employees and fans."

Payment issues as reported above started to become a problem in March, shortly after the cancellation of Ryse 2. Some say they haven't been paid in months while others were paid only 30-40 percent of their paychecks, according to the report. While this was happening, the team continued to order "expensive chairs, laptop bags, and other studio perks, including first-class flight tickets for high-level employees."

"Even when the financial troubles started, people were still flying between studios regularly, and while salaries didn't get paid, the travels were still authorized," one employee said.

New DLC for Ryse: Son of Rome will be available today on Xbox One. It's called the Morituri Pack and it's available for $7.99 or part of the game's Season Pass.

The new add-on gives players an additional three new arenas for the game's Gladiator mode. Beacon is an arena where a barbarian camp awaits for infiltration, False Gods takes place in Ancient Egyptian temples, and Revolution pits players in the "crumbling ruins of the once majestic Roman Empire."

Two new arenas for Survival mode are also included in the DLC. They include the Sulfur River and The Forbidden Forest.

Ryse players who prefer to play solo can also play five arenas optimized for that playstyle, which include Beacon, Revolution, False Gods, Market, and Garden. The armor of Oswald, King of the Britons is included in the pack.

Crytek will release its free-to-play FPS Warface to PCs on October 21, the developer announced. The game will feature co-op play as well as competitive versus modes like Team Deathmatch, Free For All, Plant the Bomb, and more.

Apparently an early build of Homefront 2has been leaked on the internet. You can tell development on the game is really early due to missing textures, but it appears real enough to be Crytek's take on the Homefrontseries.

Cyan Worlds released an update for its critically acclaimed iPad adventure, realMyst. Available for free, Version 1.0.4 adds high-resolution text and images in books, improved floor textures, a tweaked user interface, loading improvements, and various bug fixes, including ones experienced in Mechanical Age and the generator room on Myst Island. This is without question one of the best adventure games on the App Store, and it’s good to know the developer plans to continue fixing it behind the scenes. [Download]

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